Star Wars Tech - Yours For A Low $18K

This is a discussion on Star Wars Tech - Yours For A Low $18K within the A Brief History of Cprogramming.com forums, part of the Community Boards category; http://www.io2technology.com/dojo/178/v.jsp?p=/home
Check it....

WOW thats some amazing technology. I have seen a similar thing done a few years ago with lasers and holograms at the London Science museum, but I havent ever seen a multi-coloured version like that. and $18,000 not too bad when you consider that a few years ago the top end LCD projectors cost that.

Heh. What's REALLY cool, I think, is that it doesn't require a screen or fog/mist or anything -- it's a direct air projection, though admittedly it has to 'modify'(prolly ionize) the air before projecting to it... they claim whatever it does is non-chemical and temporary, so ionization is all I can think of...

Now that kicks... um, bottom. They said it only projects a 2d image like a regular computer monitor... it's only a matter of time though...

Imagine this technology catching on big and the units replace LCD and CRT technology in the vast majority of applications. Now the technology is developed such that it actually displays a 3-dimensional image if the program running can support it (otherwise it can apply effects like shadows or make the 2d images into 3d "block" images). DirectX and OpenGL jump on the bandwagon and suddenly Unreal Tribes 3D is released... instead of using a mouse and keyboard, you plunge your hand into the display with a pen-like object (USB device that comes bundled with the game, or perhaps is already in use for other applications) with a couple buttons... You maneuver through the death match/capture the flag match/etc. by pushing the device forward from a specific position (calibrated like an analogue joystick is calibrated nowadays), turning the pen sideways to turn corridors, pointing it at opponents and clicking one of the buttons for your weapon, a slight flick of the wrist upward to effect a jump...

NOW comes the part that I can forsee being really exciting. Imagine an industrious company working with this technology to develop HUGE Heliodisplays set up in a small room or large booth, with speakers in various places in the walls like a movie theatre. Make the floor moveable like a huge trackball so as the person walks around this virtual room the floor moves in the opposite direction and the display updates so it actually feels as though you are walking around.

We already have technology that can track a person's movements (those playstation games with the camera that puts you into the game and tracks where you move your hands to determine if/when you do stuff), so this type of technology could be used to track when a person hops in the air and how high and such (or like the arcade boxing games and those new consoles for baseball, bowling and stuff, require a special pair of gloves, a belt, anklets and a headband so the program can keep your orientation in mind and more accurately display an image of you with your picture as a texture).

Now, this industrious company makes a plastic gun with a couple sensors in it, sets up a huge warehouse with many of these rooms and a next-gen Deathmatch type game... Now THAT would ROCK!

And here we see the next step toward this type of game... Or this type of virtual tour through a prospective home... or this type of virtual expo, virtual ANYTHING, all without requiring anything special of the end user except perhaps a simple sensor to keep track of the user's orientation so she can be displayed accurately to other users. And this would be so much more natural of a way to interact with the program's environment than using an artificial plastic mouse to represent where you are... What about people who aren't physically able to walk around in that environment? No problem. If they're already confined to a wheelchair, the program could make an accomodation and display this person as standing / walking / running / etc. to all other participants, and the person in the wheelchair would use an old school joystick to represent the direction and speed he is moving. Might take some getting used to, but you could pick up a virtual object and the display would show it in your hand even though you don't have a physical object... it could be thrown, dropped, put on a shelf, etc.

God I wish I had the ability to work on this type of stuff for a living! Ok, I'll shut up now.

The main reason is that the guys who made this thing didn't just sell it off to some big company who'd take over and paper the world with press releases and advertisements. In other words, if they actually make this competive(IE., quieter, bigger screen size, affordable) they want to be the ones making money off it. They could prolly get a few K from selling it to somebody, but frankly, that would screw them over long term. They'd get a flat amount of cash, which would be nice, but if this gets off the ground, they wouldn't be the ones raking in the bucks.

The ideas behind this are pretty easy to follow, really, and it only surprises me that it took so long for this to be developed...

That's a different technology, developed by a completely different group of people.

Originally Posted by Geeknews

IO2Technology (6:04pm EST Thu Sep 18 2003)
This thing is garbage comparing to www.io2technology.com's screen. They don't need any medium but air. And it can act as a touch screen.

Say good buy to his POS. - by JoeLee
IO2technology (12:40am EST Mon Nov 03 2003)There thing is the same only they have a dehydrator built in to suck water out of the air then vaporise it and pump it through some nicer jets to make the "screen" smoother - by bobbdobbs
IO2technology (5:18am EST Tue Feb 03 2004)
Also the size of IO2technologys screen is somewhat smaller, that could explain the smoother pics.

If you look at the videos from IO2technology (their new site has those now), you can see that it's not that smooth after all.

Compared to FogScreen, IO2technology has the projector built in their system somehow. Also what's interesting, IO2technology claims that the image from rear is transparent, or a copy of what's in the front. This I'd like to see and understand. - by Arkkimaagi

Originally Posted by Aerie

The ideas behind this are pretty easy to follow, really, and it only surprises me that it took so long for this to be developed...

Would you care to explain these ideas? I'm curious on how one projects an image on to thin air.